Celenza Christopher S.

Christopher S. Celenza is an American historian and academic specialising in the Italian Renaissance, humanism and European intellectual history. He is currently the James B. Knapp Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins University, a post he took up in 2019 following a long academic career in both the United States and Europe.

Born in the United States in 1967, Celenza studied classical literature and the history of ideas. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree from the University at Albany and subsequently his PhD in History from Duke University, along with a Dr.phil. From the University of Hamburg, focusing his research on 15th-century humanist thought and Renaissance Latin culture. He also furthered his studies in philology and palaeography in Italy, particularly in Florence and Rome.

Before joining Johns Hopkins University, he taught at Michigan State University and subsequently at Johns Hopkins, where he was a professor of history and classics. From 2014 to 2019, he served as Dean of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at the same university, before being appointed James B. Knapp Dean of the entire School of Arts and Sciences. Throughout his career, he has received prestigious fellowships and research appointments, including at Villa I Tatti – Harvard University Centre for Italian Renaissance Studies and the American Academy in Rome.

His academic work is regarded as among the most authoritative in the field of Renaissance humanism. His major publications include The Lost Italian Renaissance (2004), devoted to Italian humanist culture; Machiavelli: A Portrait (2015), an intellectual biography of Niccolò Machiavelli; The Intellectual World of the Italian Renaissance(2018), an international reference work on Renaissance thought; and Petrarch: Everywhere a Wanderer (2017), a study of Francesco Petrarch. His works have been translated into several languages and adopted in numerous international university programmes.

He is a member of various US and international academic associations and is a regular speaker at conferences on European history, the humanities and the role of the humanities in contemporary education.